UPCOMING EVENTS

Compared to other companies its size, Google makes few venture investments, preferring to buy companies outright.

However, it has invested less than $1 million into Mountain View wireless router start-up Meraki Networks, according to GigaOm.

The router is being touted as a way to extend municipal WiFi coverage indoors, and appears to be linked to Google’s efforts to create a wireless network in cities like Mountain View and San Francisco.

The router is based on wireless mesh technology developed by co-founder Sanjit Biswas (pictured left, see bio and background) and others at MIT’s Roofnet project3.

Biswas says the funding is a “bridge round,” which refers to funding that helps tide a company over until it can get more cash in a future round of investment. He tells Gigaom that it includes “a few Silicon Valley angels.”